Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Tasers on Pigs

Testing on them, that is, not pigs wearing tasers (as much as Dr. Evil would enjoy that). This article has a lot of interesting characters in it. Apparently, people whom the police have stunned with tasers have died afterward, and the taser-critics (who knew there were such people) blame the tasers. Of course, it's not clear how the results would have been different if the cops had been using bullets, which generally are more consistently lethal than tasers. Here I always thought tasers were kind of wimpy. Speaking as a fairly average citizen, I have no problem with people resisting arrest being roughed up a little, and people who run from the cops being shot. I understand that people sometimes are the victims of mistaken identity or are just plain unlucky, but I have never seen an explanation of why resisting or running would make improve their circumstances. If we're that concerned with the possible side effects of a device that is already decidedly less lethal than guns, why don't we just arm cops with feathers to tickle suspected criminals with?

Then there's the PETA people, for whom I have absolutely no respect. At least the taser-protestors, misguided as I think they are, have some appreciation for human life. PETA-ites would prefer all animal experimentation stop, and the people who could be saved bedamned. Ranking pigs and rats above people: now that's a bleak worldview.

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